Good News/Bad News
by lizard
Brian Schweitzer turned his mouth into a gun then promptly shot himself in the foot, inspiring the Washington Post to title their article thusly: The Brian Schweitzer Presidential Speculation was Fun While it Lasted. Here are two examples from Brian’s unfiltered responses to a National Journal reporter:
Schweitzer is incredulous that Feinstein—considered by her critics to be too close to the intelligence community—was now criticizing the (National Security Agency). “She was the woman who was standing under the streetlight with her dress pulled all the way up over her knees, and now she says, ‘I’m a nun,’ when it comes to this spying!” he says. Then, he adds, quickly, “I mean, maybe that’s the wrong metaphor—but she was all in!”
And this:
Last week, I called him on the night Majority Leader Eric Cantor was defeated in his GOP primary. “Don’t hold this against me, but I’m going to blurt it out. How do I say this … men in the South, they are a little effeminate,” he offered when I mentioned the stunning news. When I asked him what he meant, he added, “They just have effeminate mannerisms. If you were just a regular person, you turned on the TV, and you saw Eric Cantor talking, I would say—and I’m fine with gay people, that’s all right—but my gaydar is 60-70 percent. But he’s not, I think, so I don’t know. Again, I couldn’t care less. I’m accepting.”
I for one am happy to have the filter-free musings of The Brian torpedo his ego-maniacal posturing for the presidency. Enjoy the whiskey and steaks, Brian, because your political ambitions just quickly evaporated, regardless of a Facebook apology.
That’s the good news. Now the bad news.
The Healthy Montana Initiative announced they won’t have the signatures to get I-170 on the ballot. Cowgirl has some good analysis of the stalling tactics deployed by AG Tim Fox. Without the signatures the likelihood of Bullock calling a special session have greatly decreased.
I don’t know how to express how damaging this is. Hospitals and mental health providers are being bled to death from this cruel denial of OUR OWN GODDAMN TAX DOLLARS WE FUCKING PAY INTO THE FEDERAL SYSTEM!
Hospitals lay off staff, people with mental illness can’t get services and those in need bottleneck at the ER and county jail.
The people who have made this disastrous decision that impact tens of thousands of their constituents HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE the consequences of their idiotic ideological cruelty. They think they are somehow addressing the Federal deficit. They are dangerously stupid. I wish we lowly citizens could take their tax-funded state benefits from them so they can enjoy the market options our broken health care system provide.
The fight will go on because the fight is overt class warfare waged by privileged ideologues against the poor. Who knows, maybe one of these days those under attack will start fighting back.
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4&20 blackbirds 
June 20, 2014 at 12:10 am
Feinstein has been notoriously deferent to the “intelligence community,” for her entire Senate career. However, she did a 180 when she discovered that they were spying on her own committee staff and hacking into the office computers.
June 20, 2014 at 6:28 am
“Who knows, maybe one of these days those under attack will start fighting back.”
Bring it.
June 20, 2014 at 9:00 am
Schweitzer’s comments reflect poorly on Montana. I’m certainly not opposed to unfiltered comments but “gaydar” and whore references? Open mouth, insert foot.
I’ve been tracking this story on the national blogs — Politico, Washington Post, etc. — and the comment sections are painting Montanans as inbred hillbilly rubes.
Thanks, Brian.
(It should be noted that he has apologized for his comments:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-Schweitzer/304130558149
but the horse is out of the barn.)
June 20, 2014 at 9:13 am
P.S. Just read Mike Dennison’s story on the Schweitzer debacle. He quotes Jim Messina: ” … Messina, President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign manager and a former chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, said on Twitter Thursday that Montanans know Schweitzer is the ‘most overrated pol (in) memory,’ and that ‘offensive comments and bolo ties don’t get you (the president of the United States).’ ”
It’s no secret that Baucus and Schweitzer weren’t the best of friends (ego issues, you think?) which would explain Messina’s comment. But I’ll bet if Schweitzer and Baucus went head-to-head in an electoral contest, Schweitzer would clean up, at least in Montana.
June 20, 2014 at 9:38 am
And a final P.S. Yes, it’s a goddamned shame that the Medicaid initiative didn’t make the ballot. Medicaid expansion probably won’t make it through the next legislature, either, unless there are some major upsets in this fall’s election.
Poor people aren’t a particularly powerful constituency.
June 21, 2014 at 8:33 am
yeah, a goddamn shame. too bad MT Democrats used medicaid expansion as a piñata in the primary. that certainly didn’t help. and it’s also too bad we are only hearing about Fox’s stalling tactics post failure.
we are in a crisis in this state, but you are correct, Pete, poor people aren’t a particularly powerful constituency. I guess that’s why a “progressive” city council in a “liberal” utopia like Missoula is more prone to criminalize homelessness by trying to ban sitting on downtown sidewalks instead of understanding why our systems are in crisis.
a real fucking shame, that.
June 20, 2014 at 12:20 pm
i think your analysis is pretty good Pete. I agree that head to head in a statewide race, today, Baucus would end up with the short end.
But Baucus can raise a lot more money faster than Brian ever could, and given some time might be able to win a protracted propaganda war.
But I think this is something entirely different.
I think that Brian might be eyeing a return to the govs office in another six years and he’s just nailing down that all important swing vote.
His more liberal supporters will forget and write it off to carelessness, and his support among more conservative voters will be solidified.
Smart, in a cynical way. It’s classic dog whistle communication 101.
June 20, 2014 at 10:15 pm
Schweitzer’s remarks, while tasteless, pale in comparison to some of his other shenanigans. Progressives should be far more upset about his shady, crony capitalist misdeeds. But this is what attracts all their hand wringing. Go figure.
http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2014/06/05/politicians-get-rich-from-mgn/
June 21, 2014 at 7:24 am
The source of this attack on Schweitzer is none other than Floyd Brown, one of the more dangerous and disgusting creatures in American history, the odious and extremist hit man who gave us “Willie Horton,” Citizens United, “Gennifer Flowers,” “Obama is a Kenyan Muslim,” etc., etc.
He is famous for attacking Karl Rove from the far right. In 1992, the Bush-Quayle presidential campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Brown, seeking to distance itself from his tactics, and calling Brown and his associates “the lowest forms of life”
Associated with Joseph Farah, World Net Daily, News Max, etc.
So why would “Just a guy” post this crap?
Consider the source.
“Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus”
June 22, 2014 at 7:49 am
Right. Because you don’t like the source’s politics, our former governor has never misused the levers of power for personal gain. Way to wear your partisan blinders.
http://helenair.com/news/local/state-and-regional/milk-river-ranch-decision-comes-before-land-board/article_7136ba68-314d-11e2-a3b9-0019bb2963f4.html